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Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Book Review: Our iceburg is melting: Changing and succeeding under any circumstances

So I'm working on my Principal's endorsement and one of our assignments in the supervision class is that we read a book about administration just for the pleasure and enjoyment of a book club read. I really loved this assignment!I received many great suggestions but in the end went with this read:

I chose it because I wanted something that was on the lighter side (and a fable sounded right up my alley!) What I didn't know at the time was just how great this read was going to be.The book is all about these penguins who live on an iceberg. One penguin, Fred (he's the one with the briefcase in the cover), is a very observant penguin and notices how the iceberg is melting. So he has to figure out what to do. He goes to Alice, one of the 10 penguins on the Leadership Council, because, as Fred puts it, she is a penguin who gets stuff done.Fred takes Alice out to survey his findings and even though she was a little hesitant at first, she asks tons of questions and then agrees with Fred that yes, there is a problem.

She goes on to tell the rest of the Leadership Council and they listen to her, but they are skeptical. Here's the first reason why I love this book: The things the penguins do and say are exactly what some humans may do or say. It has the penguins on the Leadership Council wondering, "Was Alice having personal problems, perhaps with her marriage?!"Anyways, I'm not going to get into the whole fable, here, but this is why this is a great book for leadership:

It's a simple fable that is fun. It's easy to understand, causes you to identify with one of the penguins right away, and shows a process for problem-solving.

It shows how you can have a list of steps to follow to conquer a goal, but it's not cut and dry because the people who carry out the tasks have feelings, opinions, and personalities that have to be taken into consideration.

It shows how it takes a team effort to accomplish a great task.

It shows just how important common sense and communication are to the group as a whole.

It's a low-threat read that can stimulate great discussion among a group of people working toward a common goal.

The bottom line? I loved this book and would highly recommend it to others in the future. Thank you to LeeAnn Lindsey for the recommendation!

2 comments:

LOVE this. As an ELA 6 teacher, I tend to become focused (ok, obsessed!) with just teaching ELA. Great to take a second and reflect on working as a team and understanding each other. Secretly slipped a few pages under our Principals door!

I just finished listening to Emily Hanford's podcast entitled, " At a loss for words, what's wrong with how schools teach rea...

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